Gertrude Crawford had convinced herself that she was still fit to drive, as fit as she had been as a teenager and felt for the first time the independence that came with getting behind the wheel.
But at 91, his eyesight isn’t what it used to be.
The eye disease, macular degeneration, robbed him of his peripheral vision, making it difficult to see what was happening to the right or left of his vehicle as he traveled down the road.
As a result, her daughter Deb Heisey limited her mother’s driving to as many places she could reach on less traveled, familiar roads near their home in Perry County that didn’t involve traveling on a major highway.
That was until he went to the eye doctor in January.
Crawford’s eye doctor told her it was time to stop driving.
He hit Crawford hard. He felt there was nothing wrong with his vision and said he thought he could see everything around him.
“I was convinced myself it was fine,” he said.
“That was his story,” Heisey said. “I know she could see the road in front of her, but seeing people who might cross in front of her from the side, she couldn’t see them.”
After some convincing, Crawford decided her daughter was right and reluctantly gave up the car keys.
“I sat here, 91 years old and I can’t drive. I can’t get in the car and drive. It makes you think the world is ending,” Crawford said. “But the longer I talked to my daughter and she tried to convince me that at 91, at 91 and my eyes weren’t good, and so on , that it would be better if he left it.”
Crawford said he recognizes that driving comes with a lot of responsibility. His doctor and daughter were probably right that he could be a road hazard. Still, in the back of his mind, Crawford believes he could drive, and in fact, he almost did.
One Saturday morning after her visit, she decided she wanted to go to the bank before it closed. Her son intercepted her before she went out the door and took her there.
“She would have driven,” Heisey said.
Crawford said he now accepts that his days behind the wheel are over. She asks her family and neighbors to drive her to the grocery store, church, or other places she wants to go, even though she knows her driver’s license is still valid until August 2025.
“I think Debbie,” he said, pausing to laugh, “is still a little afraid that if there was a vehicle available to me I could, you know.”
Heisey replied, “That’s why I sold his car.”
Jan Murphy can be contacted at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.
